Letters
The Age
Wednesday June 17, 2009
PETER COSTELLO Great treasurer or pretender?AT LAST Peter Costello retires, the man who swooned around in his own publicity. He liked to be remembered as Australia's longest serving treasurer. The truth is Paul Keating could have held that title, but he had the courage to take on Bob Hawke, lost, went to the back bench, challenged again and went on to win the unwinnable election. Costello never had the backbone to take on John Howard; he would sooner sulk. Where was he when they lost the last election? Gone to the back bench, talk about timing.As for Australia's greatest treasurer; you are kidding. The world was going through the greatest and longest boom in history. Australia is blessed with great mineral and energy wealth, which fuelled much of the world's boom. With ship-loads of cash pouring in from these exports, Ginger Meggs would have looked like a super-star treasurer.Great treasurers are judged at times of great adversity, like Ben Chifley, who guided the economy through the Second World War and set up the foundations (such as the Snowy Mountains scheme) for our future wealth, with limited resources. The Liberals just love to bathe in their own sunshine. Goodbye to the great pretender.Garry Richards, KnoxfieldCould have, but didn'tPETER Costello was a policy-lazy treasurer who wasted a golden opportunity during a decade of international growth to build Australia's human, technical and physical infrastructure. His neo-liberal ideological zealotry led him to flog off assets worth tens of billions of dollars, even if these were productive and wealth-generating.He could, and should, have invested billions more in our universities and schools, road and rail, environmental remediation, import replacement and export industries so as to generate real wealth for our country. Instead, under his economic stewardship, our foreign debt skyrocketed and our infrastructure was run down. We are all now paying the price for his indifference and ineptness.Jeff Gray, MorwellAnd Mother Teresa tooSO TIM Colebatch (Comment, 16/6), faint praise and then the view that "lucky" Peter Costello had flaws. It might interest you to know Mother Teresa had flaws; she would bully world leaders into donating to her causes.While I am sure Peter Costello would be embarrassed to be mentioned in the same sentence as Mother Teresa, he still deserves more than faint praise. Because of John Howard's selfishness, we missed having a better prime minister (even with his flaws), and more prosperity for this nation. I wish him well for his future.Neville Wright, KilcundaCostello for premierI NOMINATE Peter Costello for the main Liberal leadership role at state level. He could offer Victorians a sense of true accountability against the backdrop of billions of dollars frittered away by the Brumby Government and the wasted opportunities and lost vision of the current Government. Surely, no one would doubt that Peter Costello could provide better value for their tax dollar.Joe Lederman, MelbourneCorruption stacks grow ever higherIF THE federal Labor Party needs evidence about who is actually running the ALP in Victoria - the factions or genuine party members - it should take a close look at the decisions of the recent state conference ("Brimbank 'fixer' wins top ALP job", The Age, 16/6).Pre-conference deals between both factions agreed not to expel recently signed up branch stacks or challenge the position of the state secretary, who allowed this to happen. Then they voted for the disgraced Hakki Suleyman, of Brimbank notoriety, to attend the ALP national conference.To silence the protests of genuine rank and file members and to try to cover up this issue in the media, the factions jointly proposed yet another internal inquiry into branch stacking.There have been three other recent internal inquiries into Labor Party branch stacking. After conducting one in 2004, ex-premier John Cain stated that branch stacking had become a virtual party industry. After all these inquiries, nothing has been done about this corrupt practice.Paddy Garritty, WilliamstownA man of qualityI REFER to the interview with Justin Madden (Insight, 13/6) and the statement that one senior Liberal "suspected that Madden had not been near his electoral office in years".As a member of the Victorian Legislative Council, I was in Parliament on November 20, 2003, when Justin had responsibility for a Road Safety (Amendment) Bill for the Government. The sitting went all night, with Justin answering inane questions from the Opposition.At 7am the next day, the House adjourned for breakfast. I sat next to Justin. He told me that he had returned the previous day (November 20) from a Commonwealth Games meeting in Jamaica and, without any sleep, had gone straight to Parliament. He said that he hoped the sitting would be finished by 9am as he had a meeting in his electorate office with a lady who wanted to discuss her disabled son. He said he would not miss that meeting for anything.That is the quality of Justin Madden.Noel Pullen, MLC 2002-06, CheltenhamAll's well at the pointTHE Planning Minister's decision not to accept the independent panel's recommendations for improved ocean access at Bastion Point, Mallacoota, does support trust in the process. As demonstrated by a community plebiscite, the majority of people in Mallacoota support a substantially improved ocean access facility.The minister is correct in his assessment that a minor upgrade of the site fails to consider key safety issues relating to boats, swimmers and other beach users, as noted in the environmental effects statement and advice from the local port manager.Mallacoota relies on its coastal resource for commercial and recreational fishing and an ability to explore the wilderness coast, and is utilised by government agencies. The project vastly enhances safety and access to this resource, together with the opportunity to enhance the town's economy via increased tourism.It should be noted that the final decision of an EES is a ministerial one. Accordingly, it can be said that the minister has made the right call on this issue.Ian Lewis, chairman, Mallacoota Ocean Access Committee, MallacootaNot the answerIF WE accept Leslie Cannold's assertion (Comment, 16/6) that "whatever the facts or rectitude of the case for change, government action on the climate issue will be characterised by incrementalism and compromise", then we must accept dangerous climate change. We are seeing the impact of incrementalism and compromise in the weak targets being announced by governments in the lead-up to Copenhagen.The climate change movement is trying to elicit an emergency response from government and the community. Yes, there is a failure of communication and tactics; if there were not, surely we would have some runs on the board by now. But accepting incrementalism and compromise, otherwise known as "business as usual", is not the answer.Lynn Frankes, KewReal leaders neededLESLIE Cannold has indicated that apocalyptic headlines and catastrophic images of climate change provoke feelings of powerlessness among the public rather than a desire to act.If only we again had political leaders like Roosevelt, Churchill and Curtin. In a time of war, they showed the way and channelled their nations' efforts in overcoming the enormous challenges. In 1943, the percentage of gross domestic product attributable to the war effort in those three leaders' countries ranged from 40 per cent to 55 per cent.In modern-day Australia, our weak-kneed and short-sighted leaders are afraid to stand up to the fossil fuel lobby and transform our economy using green technologies and practices.Such a transformation would lead us out of the global financial crisis and make us world leaders in energy supply.We do face catastrophe if we fail to act, and much sooner than many people care to think.Paul Mahony, BeaumarisLook at the evidenceISN'T it time evidence-based policy-making finally found its day in the Victorian Government and someone took note of our own scientists ("Mountain ash best for carbon", The Age, 16/6)?The ANU is telling the world we have the best forests in the world for storing carbon, so why the heck are we chopping them down? Australia has been asking its neighbours to stop logging their "precious" forests"; well, let's get our own backyard in order before we rain down on those over the fence.Seriously, we must be able to find alternative jobs among the mature plantations across Victoria to support the small groups that continue to log these essential ecosystems.Everyone is entitled to a job but our drinking water supply, habitat for so many rare native animals and this vital system to reduce the causes of climate change are worth more than their small timber value. John Brumby, bump up your climate policy and get these forests off the loggers' radar.Chris Clement, CarltonWould you credit it?IT'S good to know that Victoria's mountain ash forests are the best in the world for storing carbon. Does that mean that, sometime in the future, some industrial polluter will gain carbon credits for not chopping them down?Ken Browne, Wheelers Hill.Make less wasteSELF-confessed high-school drop-out Chris Poole's statement that there is "no outcome certain enough . . . for me to make even the tiniest change to the way I live" (Letters, 16/6) smacks of ignorance, selfishness and short-sightedness.Global warming aside, there are still plenty of reasons why "we" should make changes to our wasteful lifestyles: reducing pollution and making the world's energy resources last longer, to name but a couple.John Howes, BelmontHow art was lost to cobwebs and PRWHAT does the State Library intend ("Hidden places' open day", The Age, 15/6) in opening Queens Hall for a once-off display? With cobwebs, dust and (spare us) even the suggestion of a ghost, it might offer a briefly diverting frisson for the curious. Might it not be even better as a library - and all year?It was once, of course. Following a major refurbishment, this grand room housed the art library until six years ago. Then, for no clear reason, it was closed, roped off at the grand staircase and offered for corporate hire.What a pleasure it once was to climb that staircase beneath Napier Waller's murals to a sanctuary of inquiry and knowledge. How different now, and meaner. The art library is buried behind a hall of computers, with virtually nothing on open shelves. Submit a request to the staff and you can expect to wait an hour, or even a day, to retrieve a book.The ghost tour? I'll pass. I am haunted enough by recollections of a special precinct, an architectural treasure and a reading resource once open to all Melburnians.David Ellis, WarrandyteDeath among usTHE Morans and their like can shoot each other all they like. However, in the midst of all the hyped-up media attention to "poor Judy Moran" and the history of the Moran clan, how much thought has been given to any innocent members of the public who happened to be in that cafe or vicinity and witnessed the event on Monday?This is not television but the real world, and anyone who unfortunately witnessed the killing in that cafe would be severely traumatised.Perhaps the Government should seriously rethink its funding of a third series of Underbelly.Delia Brodrick, South Frankston
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